Fridays Are For Inspiration

1. These cookies are so bright and fun... I'm not sure I could eat them though... they are way too cute!

Source: etsy.com via Clara on Pinterest

2. How totally sweet is this photo?

Source: None via Clara on Pinterest

3. And something worth thinking about as we head into another weekend!

Source: maryelizabethinspire.tumblr.com via Clara on Pinterest

Be Glad - Give Thanks - Cherish

We've had one of those days... you know the ones... the tiring day, where the little one is crazy and hasn't had enough sleep... where the to-do list was a mile long at the beginning of the day and is not one bit shorter at the end of it. A day where the older one is constantly talking and talking and *TALKING* when all you want is a little bit of piece of quiet...

On any other day, these things would have got to me. But today they didn't. You see... today is Ava Rosemeyer's birthday... If you haven't read her story, you can find it here. And knowing that it is this angel's special day, I looked beyond the annoyances of the day and I found the beauty in my children... the joy in the moment... and I thanked God for the blessings that they have brought to my life...

Ava, you have touched the hearts of people around the world... Always you are remembered... Always you are loved.

Hold those you love a little closer tonight and be glad, give thanks and above all cherish.

Photo A Day - August - Week 3

August 15 - Wait For Me...
We went for a picnic lunch with Chu Phong on his last day here in Brisbane... We went by the river and it was so lovely ... Elizabeth, Catherine and Chu Phong had a fabulous (albeit tiring) time running around in the forest there... so much fun... I have photos I need to get around to sharing... will do that soon!

August 16 - Swoonworthy Fabric
I have had my eye on this fabric for a good 3 or 4 months I think... It's designed by Sarah Jane with Michael Miller fabrics... I've been a fan of Sarah Jane for a few years now... and when she showed a sneak peek of it, I knew I just had to have it. I've just been waiting for it to be released and stocked at my favourite online fabric store and it did about a month ago and it *finally* arrived today! (I ordered it from the US!)... It is just divine and I am so in love with the prints... Somewhere amongst all my photography, I need to make time to make some dresses and skirts for my girls... and maybe a little something for my niece too... :)




August 17 - Snugglebug
We had brunch with friends today and Miss A was just so gorgeous, funny and adorable snuggling in her bed... She is so delightful!






August 18 - Older
Elizabeth constantly tells me she is getting bigger and that she's going to be turning 5 soon... She looks more and more grownup with each photo I take of her...





August 19 - Tea Towels Are Fashionable
See previous blog post for details.





August 20 - Face of A Pancake Thief
Again, see previous post for details.





August 21 - Random Fashion Statement
We've had a lazy, stay-in-your-pajamas kind of day today... It's been overcast and cloudy for most of the day. So this afternoon when Phan and Elizabeth ran around in the backyard for a bit, this is what Catherine ended up wearing... a hoodie over her one piece jumpsuit... and Phan squeezed her jumpsuit clad feet into her shoes as well... The girl's all class... :) I also love her smile in this photo... she's the kind of child that smiles with her entire face... When she's super smiley her eyes smile and they basically disappear... I love it..
(*apologies for the oversharpened photo, Flickr has done something weird to it!)

15 months And She's A Whole Lot Of Mischievous...

Today Catherine is 15 months and in the last week, she's really come into her own when it comes to being mischievous...

This is what she did to our dining room chair this morning while I was doing the breakfast dishes...

Lucky that chair is a write off anyway... It has had a gazillion things spilled on it... so some extra decoration is really no big deal.... but to prevent this kind of artwork appearing on our walls, all textas now live on top of the fridge.

This week she's also discovered the world of the kitchen pantry, drawers and cupboards... She is forever opening them and taking things out of them and then leaving them randomly around the house... I have found a roll of glad wrap, sponges, plastic containers and aprons lying in the middle of the lounge room... She has also found plastic microwave containers and brought them up to me and given them to me as if they were presents (aren't I lucky?).

She found cooking chocolate in the pantry while I was doing dishes the other day ... I was wondering why she had gone all quiet... turned around and she had 2 big chunks of chocolate in each hand and there were teeth marks in each piece! She got rather annoyed when I took it away from her!

She loves taking laundry out of the basket and throwing it around everywhere... often wearing it around her neck... The other day, I was cleaning a spill with a tea towel... one minute the tea towel was there, the next minute she had wandered off with it and decided it was an awesome fashion accessory, when thrown over the shoulder like this:





She's also finally stopped being a bogan and will walk wearing shoes now... It's been a bit of a struggle because previously everytime I put her in shoes she would just sit down and look helpless instead of walking... and if you didn't take the shoes off, she would take them off herself. But basically a trip to Harbourtown last weekend, where shoe wearing was not optional since we were outdoors and she got used to the idea and wanted her freedom... so now she's off and toddling around in shoes... She only has 2 pairs, so I can finally look at getting her some more shoes...





She still steals food from us at every opportunity... and now does it when you're not looking... Elizabeth had prepared herself a pancake yesterday morning (butter with a sprinkling of sugar)... then went to the toilet, came out and watched a snippet of TV before returning to the table to find that there was only 1/4 of a piece of pancake... There was outrage in Elizabeth's voice when she exclaimed "Hey?! Where did my pancake go?"... Then a quick look around to see Catherine happily sitting on the rug watching TV munching one of piece of pancake in her mouth and a piece in each hand... "Mum!!!! Catherine stole my pancake!!!" Yes, guilty as charged... there was no denying that Catherine had managed to reach up to the table, and had swiped 3 pieces of pancake straight from the plate!

She's starting to make some cute sounds at the moment... She can say "Taaaa" very clearly (and uses it to her advantage... she's realised she generally gets what she wants when she says it because it is so cute!)... She waves hello and says "Hi" ... waves goodbye and says "Deee" (her version of bye... and in vietnamese "di" mean go)... When she drops thing she says "uh oh"... She tries to tell me stuff all the time... I wish I knew what she was really saying to me.. I'm sure it's fascinating...

So much cheekiness, cleverness and mischievousness from our munchkin... Elizabeth was never this cheeky, so it's a whole new world for us! She gives us so many laughs every day...

Fridays Are For Inspiration

Okay, so I admit I'm a little late with the post ... but somewhere in world it's still Friday!

1. I've always had a soft spot for Mr Snuffleupagus... Phan bought me a soft toy one when I was in Uni... I loved it... I just find there's something enchanting and whimsical about this quote...

Source: google.com via Clara on Pinterest

2. Candid, beautifully composed, lovely light, gorgeous b&w... and of course taken by the amazing Tara Whitney... there's nothing not to love about this photo...

Source: tarawhitney.com via Clara on Pinterest

3. The colours of this sweet little market caravan just jump out of me... Too cute and just screams fun... I would love to rummage through that rack of clothes...

Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com via Clara on Pinterest

Photo A Day - August - Week 2

August 8 - There Was A Small Child Here Stacking Plates...
She pottered away when she saw me approach with the camera... :p It was really cute, Catherine was taking all the plastic plates out and stacking them on the floor and then picked them up and put them back in the cupboard... So you'll just have to imagine and instead you get to see the inside view of my kitchen cupboard... :p I actually did take a decent photo today, but it was of something that I'm not quite ready to share with the world yet... maybe soon... :)



August 9 - Silly Faces
Catherine thinks it's hilarious to squish her face into plates at the moment...



August 10 - Kissable Pout
This photo makes me *melt*... I just adore her little pout and she looks so sweet in that little outfit... oh and that dreamy bokeh... loving my 50mm 1.4... :)



August 11 - Ta
Chu Phong is in town visiting us at the moment... Catherine was initially a bit uncertain about him... but he won her over by giving her some food... Here she is saying "Ta" while taking some breakfast cereal from him...



August 12 - Model's Own Pose
Took the girls out to the park this afternoon while our interstate visitors snoozed and had an afternoon nap... I love this dress on Elizabeth... pink and turquoise are my favourite colour combinations at the moment... This pose was completely her idea... She is so random... LOL...



August 13 - Sweet Talking Daddy
A day out shopping at Harbourtown... Phong did really well and bought the most out of all of us! Phan even bought more than me (at his favourite store, Ralph Lauren)... I scored a pair of shoes... completely different to the kind of shoes I was actually looking for (I need a casual walking shoe and couldn't find anything I liked). Towards the end of our shopping expedition, Elizabeth didn't want to walk anymore and managed to sweet talk Phan into carrying her around... she looks rather pleased with herself that she got her way doesn't she?



August 14 - Sunday Morning, Pajamas and a Blue Balloon
This is how our little miss looks in the morning... dishevelled bed hair... still in her one piece jumpsuit pajamas... and there's nothing like some balloon fun to start a Sunday morning...

I Heart Faces: Beautiful Eyes

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is Beautiful Eyes, and I knew the moment I saw the theme, that I was going to enter this photo, that I took last week when we went out for a mini photoshoot with Chu Phong. She was none too impressed with the fashionable kerchief I made her wear... but those eyes *sigh* ... they just melt me... so much wonder at the world... so much youthful innocence...

Friday's Are For Inspiration

1. This little quote is doing the rounds on quite a few photographer facebook pages at the moment...

2. I'm absolutely in love with this video - it was made a present for a couple who had a 5 year long year relationship between Los Angeles and Taipei... Really worth watching... it's very creative!





3. Totally random, but I really love this... I'm sure it'd be easy to make... I'll put it on my todolist that seems to get continually longer every day!

Source: labohemeblog.com via JW on Pinterest

I Heart Faces: Friendship

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is Friendship, so I thought I'd enter this photo... It's Elizabeth and her Uncle Phi Phi... (and she openly admits he is her favourite!)... There's a very special friendship between this uncle and his niece.

Photo A Day - August - Week 1

Ahh, it's the start of another month... so here's the first week of August

August 1 - I Want To Break This...
Generally, I think I have a reasonably high tolerance for annoying, loud, repetitive noises. It just comes with the territory when you have small children. However, this toy recorder might just be the thing that tips me over the edge... Elizabeth got this from her pinata at her birthday last year, but for some reasons it's made a huge revival this week and I swear, if I hear that annoying high pitched noise again, I will probably find a way to accidentally hide it in the bin forever...

August 2 - Eclectic Fairy Ballerina
She got home from kindy and promptly changed into this miscellany of clothing and dressups... And proceeded to dance and sing... I love 4 year old randomness...





August 3 - My Grownup Newborn
After kindy we caught up with some friends at the park... and when we got home, I was pulling together the finishing touches for dinner and turned around and found her like this on the couch. Way too much excitement for one day...





August 4 - Afternoon At The Playground
Went to a different park this afternoon for something different to do... Catherine quite liked sitting on this bouncy giraffe thing...





August 5 - Oops, Dropped Something
Bath time and Catherine likes throwing things out of the bath... This photo taken without flash at about 6:30pm with just dodgy bathroom lighting. Taken using my new 50mm - ISO 6400, f/1.4, 1/250...





August 6 - Joyous Afternoon
Phan wanted me to take his car out for a spin this afternoon to feel how different it is after all the mods he's been doing to it recently... So we took a little drive over to a little park reserve I'd spied a few weeks ago and spent an enjoyable afternoon having some fun...





August 7 - Playing Trains
Crows vs Lions game playing in the background... and this is what Elizabeth, Catherine and Daddy were up to in our loungeroom this afternoon...

Scrapbooking Sunday

Coming Home is out now from Fei Fei's Stuff at Oscraps! And the colours are just delicious! I can't wait for our Australian summer to get here so I can scrap with these gorgeous bright fun colours! But for now, here's a simple neutral toned page...





Thanks for having a look!

Friday's Are For Inspiration

1. One of my Facebook photographer friends (Hi Kris!) set up something similar to this recently... I think it's an awesome way to get those photos off the computer and printed and shown off around the house... I am so doing this when we move back to Adelaide...

Source: ana-white.com via Clara on Pinterest

2. Barb Uil of JinkyArt Photography is a Canberra photographer famous internationally for her beautiful, inspiring and often whimsical portrait images... I love the opening little video clip on her website - ... I've watched it so many times and it makes me smile every time.

3. I adore this photo... a perfect simple childhood moment... illuminated with the most perfect light.

Source: dearinspirationblog.blogspot.com via Annie on Pinterest